Author: norman-ivison

Summer nights

When ordained pioneer minister, Ben Norton, was watching the tv one night he suddenly had an idea. Before long he got hold of Sam Foster a fellow pioneer in the next town to see if they could do something in their area together. They were soon taken aback by the amazing response. Ben takes up the story

The idea came from watching an episode of Top Gear when the presenters all travelled to Asia on mopeds and stopped over somewhere taking in the sights. One of the things that amazed them was the sight of hundreds of floating tea-lights being sent off down a river at night. The visual impact of this was amazing and even made the all-male macho petrol-heads stop and think.

I pondered what doing something similar might provoke in members of the public here on the Yorkshire coast. So Sam Foster (pioneer minister) and Shena Woolridge (pioneer minister and Church Army evangelist respectively, both based in Scarborough) and a handful of others set off to light up a section of the local beach and see if it would invoke something of the spiritual in passers by.

We were not too sure how it would be received, but were totally blown away. Two hundred people stopped and looked between 7:30 and 11:30pm.

Some lit a candle and walked off, some stood and chatted, some asked for prayer, and some told of their own spiritual journeys. But one thing I noticed throughout the night was that those who chose to take part in whatever way, ended up leaving the space in a different direction. For those who were walking on the beach they would have continued walking on the beach if we had not been there but they walked off up on to the pathway and vice versa.

I wondered if this was a symbol of what was happening spiritually for people? This event was maybe not life-changing, in the sense of making a 'u-turn'; but for many it was more of a 'tilt of the axis', for some ever so slightly. That night there was an encounter that maybe changed something, somewhere in their journey.

We are hopefully going to do some more summer nights up and down the East Coast and when we do, more info will appear on the St Maxs website and my blog.

B1

B1 church in Birmingham featured in the first Fresh Expressions DVD four years ago. Now Ed Mackenzie of the B1 council brings their story up to date.

Breathe - candleB1 continues to be a community that seeks to reach out to the unchurched and dechurched within the city centre of Birmingham. Significant developments over the last few years have included the Breathe project and a 'recasting' of our vision and values.

The Breathe project began in early 2007 and aimed to 'help stimulate people's spiritual imaginations'. Based in a city-centre office space, the Breathe venue offered meeting spaces, spirituality discussion groups and a 'sanctuary space' for relaxation and reflection. The challenge has been to engage people within the busyness of a city centre environment, but significant relationships have developed throughout the project. Breathe has now moved into a new 'post-venue' phase where it will work closer with other churches and charities in the city centre.    

B1 church also underwent a 'vision casting' process in 2007-2008. We articulated our vision as 'Living God, Living Differently, Living Community', and identified five values central to our life together: Attentiveness, Nurturing, Community, Acceptance and Equipping. We also developed a 'rhythm of life' with spiritual practices to help B1ers embody the five values within their lives – practices include intentional 'blessing', a daily or weekly prayer of review and regular Bible reading.

At the moment B1 church is in the process of recruiting a new leader to take us forward into the next stage of our church life.

Breathe - chairs

Tolland

At first glance, if you watched the Fresh Expressions DVD: changing church in every place, the story of Tolland was an unusual one. Why does a congregation meeting in a traditional building every few weeks qualify as a fresh expression of church, you might have asked? The fact is that the traditional congregation had dwindled to four people when the Revd Margaret Armstrong made a radical decision. Instead of simply trying to carry on with formal worship in the hope more people would come, she shared her intention to build a new outward-looking, missional congregation, based on regular less formal worship events and real attempts to rebuild community. Margaret brings the story up to date.

Tolland churchOur fresh expressions ministry has continued to flourish in the parish of Tolland. We have continued to build community with a series of alternative worship events, now often held in the village church – which has become the centre of community life.

The key to its success is the involvement of the whole community in the development, selection and planning of the ‘one off’ themed services, and taking care that they focus on the experiences of everyday life in a deep rural village.

Another key is to introduce enough change in the services selected, so that they remain fresh, but also keeping enough continuity so that the community feels comfortable. So three services, The Pet Service, Harvest and All Saints, remain standards on the rota, but of course with fresh content. We have three other services in the year with additional themes. In addition the traditional Christmas Carol Service on Christmas Day is also very popular and in 2008 attracted 110 people, almost three times the population of the village. Everyone brought their extended families!

Last year the church building faced us with a huge dilemma. The bell installation, and floors and ceilings in the tower had become dangerously unsafe. The quotes to remove the bells and make the tower safe were in excess of £10,000 and more than the total assets of the church. The church did not want to focus on money & fund raising, but on continuing to build the spiritual life of the community. So much prayer went in to seeking a solution.

Tolland church bells

That prayer has been answered in a most extraordinary way. An anonymous donor has made a gift of a very light peal of 8 brand new bells to the church. The result of this amazing gift is that I have been able to get grants to cover the costs of all the restoration work, to remove the old bells, install the new ones, and make the tower safe. The entire project has been completed and paid for, without any draw on the very limited PCC funds, and without any distraction from our focus on worshipping together in new and fresh ways.

I am shortly to retire, so the future development of this little church and its worshipping life will pass to another. But I hope and pray that the light that has been lit by Christ there will be carried forward by the lovely people who live and worship in the village.

New website launched

Welcome to the new Fresh Expressions website!

This new site has been launched after a series of consultations and a major survey and we hope it will continue to be the first stop for anyone wanting to find out about the Fresh Expressions initiative and how they might be involved.

The new site is focussed around telling stories of fresh expressions which will give good examples of new forms of church and provide inspiration and share good practice. You can search the stories by location or by keyword or you can simply browse.

We've also updated the back end of the site to allow us to integrate more audio and video material and improve the layout and navigation. We've got a new media section and an area with ways you can get involved.

You'll also still find lots of information about us as an organistion, about our training and events and our resources – purchasable from our improved shop.

We do still need your feedback in order to continue to improve the site so please do contact us with your thoughts.

Church on Tap

One Canadian congregation realised it was failing to reach those who found conventional church off-putting. Rob Hurkmans explains how Church on Tap came into being.

Who says you have to do church in a church? The Parish of St. James and St. Brendan in Port Colborne, Ontario (Diocese of Niagara, Anglican Church of Canada) found the perfect place to start a new church community: the local pub. In this relaxed setting on the last Sunday of every month, the Canalside Pub and Eatery becomes the venue for Church On Tap. The format of the service is casual, the music is contemporary (or even 'secular'), and the waitresses serve drinks and food throughout the night – but in the midst of it all people are building community, exploring their faith, and learning about God.

Instead of watching sports on the big screen, members of Church On Tap engage with Christian themes through videos or guest speakers. There is plenty of opportunity for small group discussion, as well as sharing amongst the larger group. As you might imagine, many of the traditional barriers people encounter in churches, are non-existent in a pub. Also, the informal setting seems to enable people to share more freely with others in discussion.

 

Some have objected to the notion of holding church in a pub, but wasn't Jesus often accused of hanging out in the wrong places with the wrong people? Wasn't he called a glutton and drunkard? The mission of Church On Tap is not to reach the 'already churched' but to provide a place of prayer, worship, community, and discussion for those who may never step foot inside a traditional church building. So, for 'Faith, Friends, and Froth! – it's Church On Tap!'  Cheers!